1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an image forming apparatus, a management apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventionally proposed image forming apparatus can store configuration data in a storage unit. The configuration data is operational setting information usable to switch an operational state of the image forming apparatus.
The configuration data is stored in a storage unit of each image forming apparatus. Therefore, if it is required to change the configuration data of a plurality of image forming apparatuses, the configuration data change setting becomes troublesome. To decrease the time and labor in the configuration data change setting required for all of the image forming apparatuses, it is conventionally known that an information processing apparatus can perform batch setting of configuration data for a plurality of image forming apparatuses.
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-130838, a conventional image forming system is configured to enable a plurality of image forming apparatuses, when an initial setting operation is performed, to download initial system setting information from a server and reflect the downloaded information to initial setting contents. According to the above-described conventional image forming system, even when the initial setting information of an image forming apparatus is lost, the initial setting information can be delivered again from the server to the image forming apparatus.
Further, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-60186, it is conventionally known that a cooperative processing apparatus can discard job data relating to cooperative processing in response to a detection of abnormality in cooperative processing performed between an external apparatus and an image forming apparatus.
According to the image forming system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-130838, in an event that an image forming apparatus is restored or scrapped, the data relating to the image forming apparatus that possibly includes personal data may not be surely deleted and may remain in the image forming apparatus itself or in an external apparatus accessible via a network.
For example, it is now assumed that a system includes an image forming apparatus and a management apparatus, in which the management apparatus can manage operational setting information of the image forming apparatus and can deliver operational setting information to the image forming apparatus. If the information relating to the image forming apparatus is deleted by a user when the image forming apparatus is scrapped, it is desired for the management apparatus to delete management information of the scrapped image forming apparatus correspondingly.
Further, in the above-described system, if the data relating to the image forming apparatus and the management data of the image forming apparatus are simply and automatically deleted, some of important data may be erroneously deleted. Accordingly, depending on a phenomenon occurring in an image forming apparatus, it may be desired to temporarily encrypt and retreat the data without deleting the data immediately after the occurrence of the phenomenon (hereinbelow retreating processing).